kaulat

"You know what's wild? Martin Luther King stood for nonviolence. Now what's Martin Luther King? A street. And I don't give a f**k where you live in America, if you on Martin Luther King Boulevard, there's some violence going down!" --Chris Rock, Stand Up Address: 935 E Martin Luther King Jr, 90813 Asking Price: $375,000 (reduced from a cool $400,000) Year Built: 2005 Size: 4 beds, 4 baths, 2092 sq. ft. $/Sq. Ft.: $179 Purchase price: $620,000 Purchase date: 10/2005 MLS#: R712119 On Redfin: 180 days Down Payment: $37,500 Monthly Payment: $2,400 Income Requirement: $94,000 Description: Beautiful SFR Close to Downtown Long Beach, it is a 4 beds/3.5 Baths, formal dining room, family room, 1/2 bath downstairs, all bedrooms on the 2nd level, Master & 1 Bedroom have full bathrooms, floors downstairs Tile/Ceramic, Carpet wall to wall upstairs, 2 cars garage, this home was built on 2005, imagine to buy an almost new home with only few minutes to the beach & wit...

Patrick.net had an interesting post today regarding the reluctance of banks to get homes off their books despite rapidly depreciating values. Doesn't seem worth it to bleed carrying costs and diminished value each month. It's to the point where if I see a listing that's a short sale or bank-owned, I won't so much as give it a second thought. I mean, what's the point? Sit around for weeks and wait for an overwhelmed, overworked bank rep to finally return your call only to reject your fair-market offer? Hell, by that time the median home price will have lopped off another 1 to 2%. Anyhow, Patrick provides an explanation that makes sense to me. One answer is that if the banks were to really sell their foreclosures for what they’re worth in the open market, that would devalue the collateral they hold on all their other mortgages, rendering the banks instantly insolvent. That pretty much nails it, no? Because of the likelihood a bank would have multiple mortgages in th...

Wow. HOUSE WITH 3 BED 2 BATH, THE HOUSE HAS BEEN DIVIDED INTO TWO SEPARATE LIVING SPACES, 2/1 BATH AND 1/1 BATH (GOOD FOR HELP YOURSELF IN THE MORTGAGE PAYMENT) LONG DRIVEWAY WITH CARPORT. CLOOSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. YOU MUST TO SEE TO APRECIATED. I think it's a little too "CLOOSE" to that elementary school because agents are apparently outsourcing their work to third-graders. AND THANK YOU FOR YELLING. YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION. I AM READY TO BUY NOW. First, do we even need to debate whether their little "TWO SEPARATE LIVING SPACES" construction project was permitted? There's about as much chance of that as gas prices dropping to 50 cents a gallon. Second, you know a house is severely overpriced when the realtor herself concedes renting out the Bob-Vila-on-a-two-week-meth-bender 1 Bed/1 Bath "apartment" is your only conceivable shot at swinging the mortgage payment. But the realtor told me it's GOOD FOR HELP MYSELF so perhaps I shouldn't be too ...

I've been asked several times today if I'm finding that things have slowed here in Skaneateles. One question came from a woman who would like to enter real estate as a second career, and another from an owner of a listed home. I replied that while the market is stable in Syracuse - I just had an offer accepted - and healthy, Skaneateles appears to have slowed down. Currently there are 117 homes on the market in Skaneateles. This past week there were 13 new listings, 2 at least re-lists from the past. None sold last week, and there are now 15 closings this year. An old farmhouse on 5 acres was the most recent closing, and because it was priced right it went higher than the list price through a possible bidding war in a matter of days. I was curious about the market as compared with last year. At this point (4/28/2007) we had had 25 closings with a price range of $75,200 up to two waterfront homes closing at 1.3M. Our range in 2008 is low $100s to $875,000, and again, only...

I don't generally do this, but I ran across a couple good ideas on Yahoo yesterday that made sense. I do think presentation of a home makes a great deal of difference. I have one family who has prepared their home like a model, checking out what makes a model so enticing and then copying it. Amazingly everyone who walks through says it "Shows like a model!" Mission accomplished - well, not yet, because it hasn't sold but it's still available for you to buy....! Another family staged the home, complete with fake food on the table for Thanksgiving and a breakfast tray with croissants and tea things set invitingly in the master bedroom. That house did sell, and above the price I had thought privately we would get. But this is what Yahoo says: "If you do only two things before showing your house, clean and clean some more." Very, very true! I recently sold a home that had been supposedly cleaned but the new owners spotted grease on the baseboards and...

Yesterday I went to the Big M in Elbridge for groceries. I had intended to put them away and go back to the office to work on my mailing list. I love being in the village on a warm spring evening, the door open to passers-by. I found myself taking the opportunity to buy cards to send to people. I needed two sympathy cards and two get well cards. As I stood in the aisle deciding on which cards to buy, I realized I should just go home and enjoy the day, walk the dogs, read in the sunshine, wait for Bob to come home. One sympathy card was for the Woodcock family. Bob had worked for them for a few years off and on, and came to really like and admire Dr. Woodcock. Last Friday his plane crashed in Skaneateles due to engine failure. He was killed by a falling tree, the flight instructor left in critical condition. A friend called us Friday night to tell us after his name was released. He had just retired from his ophthalmology practice and looked forward to flying. The other was for ...

Celebrating Earth Day is a great time to catalogue what our family has done to become "greener." It seems as if the world is on a "green" kick, and we're part of the process. Of course, our main reason - perhaps - is to save money as well as the planet. Since we can accomplish both with the same actions we have a wonderful opportunity to double our pleasure. One thing we do is drive economic cars. My Scion XB gets about 28-30 mpg whether it's city or highway. My husband's Element is in the lower 20s, but still so much better than all the pick-ups and SUVs most painters use for work. We each have convertibles - mine is the Cabrio (32 mpg) and his is an old Honda del Sol (maybe 34 mpg.) Last year I was able to drive the convertible well into October. This year I plan to sell it - interested? - and buy a mini. I thought I was doing well with my mpg rating as a Realtor. I met an agent a couple weeks ago who complained about his big Chrysler - 14 mile...